As you probably imagine, the closer you are, the better realism and immersion you get.

With this subject in mind there are different variables, as the screen size.
Below 27 inches ideal distance is about 60 cm, always calculating from the driver eyes to the main screen.
Bigger screens need to increase this distance up to 10 cm, no more. Over 70 cm is not recommend because lack of coherence between “real” and “virtual” objects.

Right focus of our sight has to be in straight line to the “road”. You achieve this when your eyes are at the 60% of the height of the screen. There is no need to change the focus or other inconveniences physical issues.

The ideal is to overshape wheel virtual silhouette with the physical, always leaving a short distance between 3 and 6 cm. Bear in mind you have to accomplish the previous distance and height guidelines before and feel comfortable in your driving position.

Check in your sim which options you have to calculate the height and the distance of the seat and the wheel. Mostly you got an approach with the previous steps.

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5. Field of view

Disable virtual representation of the driver hands and wheel.

It is really important to understand what is happening before our eyes. Lastly every sim has its own FOV calculator that helps to set depending on the height and distance measures. When the FOV is wrong there is an tunnel effect that distorts the speed feeling and feedback. When you try to get a balance with one screen it is important not forget the vehicle sides.

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6-Covering

Even with only one screen is advisable to get a cover. Its function is avoid every kind of distractions for our sight. Speed feeling is also better.

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7- Triple screens

Frames are important value to consider when you are setting a triple screen configuration. Try to get something with less than 10mm. To reduce this black strip you can overshape frames of the monitors.
To calculate angles of the triple screen there are different tools which with a few value inputs can show your ideal FOV, angle and distance to get the ideal configuration.

Big screens with projectors which wheel is very close to the main screen.
A big single screen has the problem due to the distance of our sight to distant points of the sides.
Three panels or curved panels don’t seem to have same problem if you use a software to correct the FOV.

Seems the next big thing. It promises a total immersion getting you into the game. Speed feeling and head tracking incorporated. In the con side, still in development, lost the physical limbs and fingers, not a human real FOV yet, not a big resolution yet, feeling sickness, etc.
We will hope the next DK3 will solve some of these issues.

As you probably imagine, the closer you are, the better realism and immersion you get.

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Given all other things being equal (such as screen resolution, performance, and screen angle), why are three smaller screens very close to you not completely analogous to three larger screens projected further away?

Given all other things being equal (such as screen resolution, performance, and screen angle), why are three smaller screens very close to you not completely analogous to three larger screens projected further away?

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They might be, but three larger screens close are even better
It's about filling your vision with the game, putting the screens further away gives your brain a chance to notice it's not actually inside the game world. Besides having the screen 60" away from the back of your wheel you would end up having to run in "bumper/hood" cam, because that's where your vision into the world starts, having them close allows you to see the interior of the car.

Obviously some personal preference here, but my distance to the centre screen is set by the three screens filling my horizontal field of view. Any closer seems a waste (I just get bigger pixels and lose the edges of the displays) and having the centre screen a little further from your nose is much easier on the eyes as they don't have to focus so closely.

Again, even if the screen is 60" behind your wheel (mine is not that far, honestly ) it can be set up to look identical to a smaller screen closer to you. If you look at curved projection simulators that use full sized car models they do exactly this; optically there should be no difference between small screens close by or big ones further away (apart from your focal distance, my preference being a little more than the end of your nose ), or am I missing something?

I cba getting into explaining excatly why moving it close makes a difference right now, maybe later, some other day, but it does
Also, in my opinion you should cover more than your focal vision when looking straight forward, because when you glance left or right you want to be able to see if there are cars side by side with you (in the blind spot of the mirrors).

So I guess a good question might be what is the ideal horizontal FOV that a triple screen setup should cover from the viewing position? Mine manages about 165 degrees I can make this higher by pulling the outer screens in more but I get other detrimental effects (such as worse off-axis viewing angles) and moving closer make the pincushion effect of using flat screens more noticeable, so that's where I have settled.

If anyone can explain to me about why closer is better though I would appreciate it; my basic geometry calcs say otherwise (even parallax should be the same) but there might be another factor I am missing.

If your wheel is 60" from your screen, then you're essentially driving as if your wheel is 60" from your dashboard (or thereabouts). You're then driving from the backseat, which is obviously awkward. I doubt you could even move the in-game seat far enough backward to mimic that viewpoint. Even if you could, the car interior would fill your FOV, leaving you trying to judge apexes, and spot brake points not only from far way, but amidst a very cluttered, distracting visual environment.

So you're absolutely correct that both the close small screen and far large screen can provide a correct FOV, and a 1:1 representation, but the correct FOV when driving your car with a 60" steering column is less preferable, just as it would be in reality.

Yes, I absolutely understand why you don't want to be driving from the back seat

This shouldn't be the case though if in the sim options you have correctly set up your distance to centre screen, screen sizes, and outer screen angles. These parameters should allow the graphics to be correctly rendered so that you are always sat in the right position in the car regardless of the distance between your wheel and screen. It should mean that when correctly set up, a small screen close by and a large screen further away can give an identical FOV and the feeling that you are sat in the drivers seat (i.e. the steering wheel looks the correct size from your viewing position).

Small screen close by and big screen further away. When set up correctly both of these should appear absolutely identical (same horizontal and vertical FOV) from the viewing position, and you should feel like you are sat in the same place in the vehicle. This is obviously only for a single screen, but you can see how the same geometric rules apply for multiple screens based on this.

Yes, I absolutely understand why you don't want to be driving from the back seat

This shouldn't be the case though if in the sim options you have correctly set up your distance to centre screen, screen sizes, and outer screen angles. These parameters should allow the graphics to be correctly rendered so that you are always sat in the right position in the car regardless of the distance between your wheel and screen. It should mean that when correctly set up, a small screen close by and a large screen further away can give an identical FOV and the feeling that you are sat in the drivers seat (i.e. the steering wheel looks the correct size from your viewing position).

Maybe all of these set up options aren't available in all sims?

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No sim has those options afaik, you get the option to adjust FOV, but not camera position based upon your distance to the screen.

Small screen close by and big screen further away. When set up correctly both of these should appear absolutely identical (same horizontal and vertical FOV) from the viewing position, and you should feel like you are sat in the same place in the vehicle. This is obviously only for a single screen, but you can see how the same geometric rules apply for multiple screens based on this.

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Yes you are right about the FOV, but you need to consider the camera position, I think this is where most people get confused. If we look at the image above as an example, with the small close screen you would position the camera so you see the top of your steering wheel and dashboard of the car, this would give you the right sense of proportion, that you are sitting in the drivers seat and the dashboard is at a proper distance from you. If you set the same camera position on the large screen far away, it will be like sitting in the back seat of the car driving like @Michael Henke said. If you adjust the camera position to "hood view" so the only thing you might see is the tip of the bonnet, THEN it would be correct.

No sim has those options afaik, you get the option to adjust FOV, but not camera position based upon your distance to the screen.

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In the triple screen setup app in Assetto Corsa you can set your distance from the centre screen, physical screen size, and angle of your side screens. I think that you need all of this information (or to be able to calculate it) to correctly set up triple screens.

With respect to the small screen vs large screen picture I posted above. If you took the small screen and moved it away from the viewing position (without altering the image displayed on it) then it would indeed feel to the viewer like they were moving toward the back of the car. But imagine that as you moved the screen away from the viewer that you kept increasing its size; the view would be no different (still showing the steering wheel and dashboard of the car) and the steering wheel would always look the same size and in the same position to the viewer.

It is the same principle that allows the Oculus Rift to work, where you have very small but very close screens giving the appearance of the steering wheel being the correct size and in the correct place even though the image is being shown millimetres from your eyes.

But imagine that as you moved the screen away from the viewer that you kept increasing its size; the view would be no different (still showing the steering wheel and dashboard of the car) and the steering wheel would always look the same size and in the same position to the viewer.

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But no, because you can still tell theres a distance between you and the image you are watching, so it will not be correct. That is how I perceive it at least, ymmv.
Also, the settings and calculator in AC is for getting the correct FOV and for AC to know how much it needs to "distort" or angle the rendered image on your side screens for it to give you the right feeling. The image displayed on the side screens are not the same at 40 degrees angle as say 60 degrees.
It has nothing to do with camera position afaik, that you need to tweak to your own liking using the "onboard settings".

Correct, that is what the angle setting does, but you also set the distance from the centre screen and the physical size of the screen, which sets up your FOV and viewing position to the cars default (the drivers eye position). The 'onboard settings' then adjust where the driver sits in the car, just as you would in a real car be adjusting the seating position, which changes where the drivers eyes are. These setting are independent.

Correct, that is what the angle setting does, but you also set the distance from the centre screen and the physical size of the screen, which sets up your viewing position to the cars default. This can further be adjusted via the 'onboard settings' just as you would in a real car be adjusting the seating position.

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Ok, I was not aware that it changed the camera/seating position according to that, I don't have 3 mons so I have never tinkered with those settings tbh. Distance to center screen and physical size are both needed to calculate the FOV though.

Bigger screens have more lag, so a low-lag screen closer is better than a higher-lag screen further away. Still, no matter where you put it, a bigger screen is nicer for filling the field of vision, so choose your tradeoffs.

I have never heard of a screens size effecting lag in any way; as far as I am aware the two are not related. Larger screens tend to be TV's, and TV's can include lots of image processing that does increase lag. As long as you are able to turn all of that processing off (such as using a 'game' mode) then the lag should be no different.